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Cell Phones in Yoga Class? I Think Not A few days ago it came to light that a yoga teacher was fired for discouraging cell phone use in her class. Hired by Facebook to provide a yoga break at their Menlo Park facility, Alice Van Ness shot a student a disapproving look when that student in the front row interrupted practice to tap out a text in the middle of

Overcoming Addiction: Replace Unhealthy Habits with Healthy Ones Most human problems are created by our inability to properly feel and express our feelings. Example: addiction. An addiction from my point of view is a way of distracting yourself from yourself. So, instead of feeling your feelings you’re eating, drinking, working, sexing, drugging, being violent, etc. Addicts from my experience and point of view are not just homeless bums on the

Supported Matsyasana: Floating on Earth My fourth grade teacher, Miss Hazen, loved to travel. She had visited what seemed like every single state in the U.S. As she taught us about all the states and their capitals, she told us little tidbits about each state she’d gleaned from her travels. One of these little morsels struck a deep chord in me: Miss Hazen talked about a curious lake out west

Teaching Yoga: How Do You Live Gracefully with the Financial Challenges? This morning two of my favorite bloggers/yoginis, it’s all yoga, baby and Linda-Sama Karl of Linda’s Yoga Journey, posted a blog by a yoga teacher who was fresh out of bankruptcy court. Jay Fields, author of the blog Grace & Grit, discussed the very real day-to-day challenges of trying to make a living as a yoga teacher, and the

The Women Learn the Invocation to Patanjali to Gopi and the women in her teacher training We stop and start, yogena, trying too hard to not try too hard, voices smooth water moving slow over the tremble of stone, the ease of eddy. We want to land on each syllable, tilt it right with inflection at just the right speed. We want to sing with heart, to arrive

From Teacher to Yoga Studio Owner Two years ago, while at a retreat at Feathered Pipe Ranch with Cora Wen, I got an intriguing phone call. I had been teaching yoga for a couple of years at local gyms and really liked it. I had a regular following. I was consistent and non-flakey so I started to get the time slots that I wanted (more precious than gold; if you

Downward Dog for the Dog Days Feeling dog tired? Hankering for a little shuteye in the shade? You’re likely just feeling the sultry, energy-sapping swelter of the dog days of summer. Ancient Greeks and Romans first identified the dog days. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, they run from July 3rd to August 11th, although other sources say they begin as early as June 23rd and end in September. During

Learn to Sit Most of us spend the majority of our waking hours sitting—at our computers, in our cars, at our dining tables, in front of the television. We often become so engrossed in whatever is in front of us that we forget to stretch and shift, or we do so unconsciously, often moving in the direction of slouchier posture as the hours roll by. As longtime yogi and writer

Redefine Beauty in the Moment As I pulled my chest forward in upward facing dog, and right before I arched my back, I caught the view out the window of the yoga studio: a field of rushing blond grasses against the fast-moving blue-gray clouds of the storm to come, and behind the earth and sky, cars darting quickly down a busy road, beige professional buildings scattered throughout the scene. As

T2: Pain in the Neck or Gateway to Higher Wisdom? I’ve got a pain in the neck. Now, don’t worry; I’m not gonna name names. Well, I take that back. I will name one: T2. Not the Terminator Now, before you go and make Arnold Schwarzenegger’s phone ring off the hook, let me explain. It’s not him (although it could be; what’s up with what he did to Maria Shriver?